NEPHRODIUM* 
139 
if it were rare. But being common, the inhabitant of 
every copse and field, it is less appreciated than it de- 
serves to be. It was not so in olden time ; in the me- 
diaeval ages this was the hero of the fern tribe. This 
is, or is supposed to be the fern that supplied the mystic 
fern-seed gathered so ceremoniously on St. John’s Eve, 
and imparting the marvellous power to “ walk invisible.” 
The gathering of fern-seed, whether at St. John’s Eve or 
at another period, was ever associated with witchcraft 
and demonology. Lyte pronounced all these fabled 
wonders “ but trumperie and superstition,” and they seem 
to have died out with the last century. “ Vagabonds,” 
as Mr. Newman tells us, used to make “lucky hands,” 
or “St. John’s hands,” out of the curled-in young 
fronds, and sell them as charms to put in the troughs 
from which the cattle drank. 
All herbalists esteemed the Male- fern for its medicinal 
properties. They extracted a valuable vermifuge from 
its roots, and also gave it as medicine to horses. 
In Norway the fronds are still used to fodder cattle, 
and, when decayed, for manure. When burnt, its ashes 
are useful in soap-making. The Siberians and Norwe- 
gians both use it as an article of food, the former fla- 
vouring their ale with it, the latter cooking the young 
fronds as asparagus. 
The Male-fern grows abundantly in all quarters of 
the globe, in all kinds of soils, and at various altitudes. 
Mr. Wollaston has given a large amount of patient' 
study and investigation to this fern, and he has come to 
the deliberate conviction that it should be divided into 
three distinct species, Filix-mas , pseudo-mas, and pro - 
pinqua. He gives as the distinguishing characteristics 
of the first, that its fronds are “ lanceolate, bipinnate, par- 
